Trapper kills Bowen Island wolf-dog

An unidentified B.C. trapper, armed with a rifle and a special permit to use it, killed the Bowen Island wolf-dog Thursday morning.

The 90-pound animal had eluded capture, killing dozens of cats, dogs, geese, and leaving the B.C. island’s forests strewn with deer carcasses since arriving last December.

The trapper, hired by the Bowen Island municipality, arrived on the island at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and was taken to a farm where the animal had killed sheep earlier in the week. Betting that the dog would return to the farm, the trapper took up a concealed position nearby. When the hybrid indeed returned at 6:30 a.m. local time, the trapper felled him with a single shot to the head. Residents in a nearby house did not even hear the crack of the rifle, said Mr. Buchanan.

The animal’s body was removed from the island by the trapper and will be incinerated.

The municipality refused to release the trapper’s name, saying he wishes to remain anonymous. “People in his industry aren’t exactly the Oprahs of the world,” says Mr. Buchanan.

Mr. Buchanan would only say that he was a licensed professional trapper from the Lower Mainland and that he had experience removing “problem animals” from golf courses and farms. The man was a lucky find for the municipality following the refusal of many Vancouver-area trappers to travel to the island.

As reported in Thursday’s National Post, Alastair Westcott, the island’s only vet, had spent months hunting the animal with a high-powered tranquilizer rifle. The animal also eluded a different private trapper brought in by the municipality in February. In mid-April, the municipality abandoned their attempts to capture the animal humanely and hired a second trapper who was licensed to use deadly force.

The arrival of the second trapper was delayed for weeks as municipal officials secured him a special weapons permit. It is illegal to discharge firearms on Bowen Island, which is located only 20 minutes by ferry from West Vancouver.

While the animal was at large, residents has suspected that it could be a Pacific coast wolf. Now, municipal officials are confident that the animal was a wolf-dog hybrid released on the island either by a visitor or a resident.

“I’m relieved it is gone, but saddened that some human allowed this to happen by abandoning a pet that couldn’t be controlled on our island,” wrote Bowen Island resident Brenda McLuhan in a letter to the Post. “What a cowardly thing to do, and how unfair to all of us who had to deal with the consequences.”

Bulletin boards and power poles in the 3,500-person community are papered with missing pet posters and municipal notices instructing residents to “take refuge in a safe location” if they should see the animal.